Paper short abstract:

We look to cases from the highlands and the Amazon in which local governments and individuals invoke buen vivir in matters of environmental conservation, education, farmers’ markets, and maternal health. We explore how Ecuadorians have adopted, or ignored, buen vivir as a sign of valued civic life.

Paper long abstract:

In 2014, Ecuadorian economist and politician Fander Falconi tweeted "I suggest that upon greeting and saying goodbye Ecuadorians say 'buen vivir,'" inviting citizens to participate in the official discourse of the new development paradigm, one concerned with the democratization of public services and defined in contrast to neoliberal policies of previous decades. Although Falconi's suggestion has not yet transformed colloquial discourse, in this paper we propose that buen vivir has been increasingly appropriated by diverse actors (e.g. local leaders, organizations, individuals). This paper draws on ethnographic research that took place over multiple research seasons from 2012 to 2015 in Cangahua (Pichincha), Quilotoa (Cotopaxi), and Cuyabeno (Sucumbíos), using interviews and participant observation to document circumstances in which Ecuadorians re-claim ownership over how buen vivir might be defined. We observe particular invocations of buen vivir to align local economic activities with official development discourse and thus frame them as civic engagements, worthy of public recognition, as well as state support. Yet, at some sites of intense state intervention and investment, local leaders rarely mention buen vivir. Even as they pursue state-sanctioned development initiatives, community authorities take up alternative, conflicting discourses of pre-buen vivir interculturality and/or neo-liberal modernization. The proliferation of projects pursued under the banner of buen vivir speaks not only to the expansion of the state under the Citizen's Revolution, but also and more directly to the continuing, creative struggles of Ecuadorians themselves to be recognized as citizens in matters of environmental conservation, education, farmers' markets, and maternal health.

Paper short abstract:

This article discusses the contested relations between the notion of vivir bien as state policy and bureaucratic practices in Evo Morales’ Bolivia. It argues that its implementation is challenged by everyday techniques and procedures of the state that continue to create and reproduce coloniality.

Paper long abstract:

Since 2006, the notion of vivir bien - a conglomeration of critical ideas, worldviews, and knowledge deriving from a complex set of social movements, indigenous groups, activist networks, and scholars of indigeneity - has been introduced into Bolivian policy-making processes. It is portrayed as a democratizing and decolonizing policy alternative that provides locally grounded solutions to societal problems. While much of the outcomes of public policy shift have already been critically assessed, there is still a lack in showing how and why these difficulties in implementation emerge. By discussing the contested relations between the notion of vivir bien as state policy and everyday bureaucratic practices in Evo Morales' Bolivia, this article tries to fulfill the gap. It argues that it is not solely the grand ideological battles or political conflicts that impede the implementation of this new policy alternative; more attention should rather be paid into unveiling the internal functioning of state bureaucracy. It is demonstrated here that multiple everyday techniques, procedures, and routines of the state continue to create and reproduce various forms of coloniality. The ethnographic evidence presented in this article suggests that it is these exact - and assumingly insignificant - bureaucratic routines that derogate vivir bien transformation agenda internally. Consequently, together with resistance and outright racism by public servants, it is shown that deep ruptures have emerged between political rhetoric of decolonization and concrete everyday actions amidst state bureaucracy.

Paper short abstract:

The paper examines political ontological frictions in Buen Vivir's commitment to equality in diversity, describing how inequality and diversity are understood and mobilized by diverse actors.

Paper long abstract:

The paper examines the postcolonial and epistemic frictions in Buen Vivir's commitment to equality in diversity. With major transformations in the goals, meanings and outcomes of public policy in Ecuador over the past decade, the paper describes and analyses the ways in which inequality and diversity have come to be understood, mobilized and institutionalized by diverse actors. Drawing on decolonial and feminist critiques, the paper seeks to explore the contentious politics around social difference. Buen Vivir state programmes draw on development, ecology, feminist and indigenous proposals to create an innovative approach to equality. Ecuador's decade-long experiments of tackling intersectional disadvantage have potential global relevance, given the Sustainable Development Goal of leaving no-one behind and addressing intersectional disadvantage. Yet Buen Vivir is partially connected with Kichwa epistemologies of sumak kawsay in which notions of nurturing relations and the scope of difference speak to ontological politics at the heart of Buen Vivir.

Paper short abstract:

Ecuador experienced a wave of policy change from 2007 onwards. The internal organization of the ruling party facilitated policy change, in spite of internal differences. The bargaining strategies of the executive and the mechanisms of policy discussion secured support for the executive’s agenda.

Paper long abstract:

From 2007 onwards, Ecuador experienced a substantial wave of policy changes not seen before, at least from its democratic transition. How did the executive managed to be a successful policymaker in a country known for its chronic deadlock? The existence of a large and disciplined party controlling the executive and congress appears to be a key element behind the country's wave of policy change. However, it is not clear how the ruling party achieved high levels of voting unity, considering the policy differences among its coalitions. Based on in-depth interviews to current and former legislators, and former members of the country's latest Constitutional Assembly, this paper presents results that point to the organization of the ruling party as a mechanism that reduced the transaction costs of policy change. Specifically, the paper presents stylized models of the party-in-congress that show how the bargaining strategies of the executive, and the mechanisms that the ruling party used to discuss policy proposals, helped the executive secure support for his policy agenda. Moreover, the party organized support for the executive while keeping to a minimum policy concessions.

Paper short abstract:

This paper considers those on the fringes of national development frameworks in Bolivia, who contest the forms of socially and environmentally sustainable development being promoted by the government.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers those on the fringes of national development frameworks in Bolivia, who contest the forms of socially and environmentally sustainable development being promoted by the government. It examines government treatment of oppositional social movements, using theories of contentious politics, the political and development, firstly to analyse the changing role for social movements within the formation of development policy and practice. Secondly, it will question what changing relationships between social movements and the government means for Vivir bien. The paper will use fieldwork data from a recent conflict over road building in the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park, TIPNIS.

Paper short abstract:

The new Charagua socio-political organization is an example of the Bolivian development’s politics under Vivir Bien paradigm. By analysing the implementation of Guarani’s Ñandereko, we discuss a concrete case where indigenous values and practices can create a true model of integrate development.

Paper long abstract:

The Bolivian State, according to the Constitution, is based on plural model (economic, legal, social, political, etc), which is focused on Vivir Bien as paradigm of practices and ethical principle. As the constitutional approach is multicultural, the Ñandereko - Guarani's idea of harmonious living - is one of the concepts under the umbrella of Vivir Bien in the section devoted to the ethical and moral principles rooting the values and the objective of the State (Sec.II, art.8).

If the Vivir Bien is a process that reinforces cultural identity and promotes an alternative model of integrate development based on idea of community, the case of Autonomía Guaraní Charagua Iyambae - the first autonomía indígena originario campesina of Bolivia - is an interesting example of how indigenous knowledge and traditions, the Ñandereko indeed, can build a new model of socio-political organization promoting a new idea of development based on inter/intra ethnic relationship and local cultural integration progress. In this perspective, the paper discusses the ethnographic data from the fieldwork among the Guarani people of Charagua (Department of Santa Cruz). From an anthropological point of view, the aim is to examine the guarani political strategy where the Law has a key role as agent of changes and promoter of differences. As a consequence we show how an indigenous group acts and interprets the development within a process of self-determination, which through legal discourse describe the relational dynamics of identity and the complexity of an emic/holistic approach to the so called desarollo integral.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how the co-operative movement in Ecuador has evolved and changed since the official adoption of the ‘Vivir Bien’ paradigm and the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) as development pathways.

Paper long abstract:

Ecuador's socioeconomic landscape has changed since Rafael Correa became president in 2007. Correa's government promotes the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and its organisations (i.e. co-operatives, mutual societies and community-based organizations). Since 2008 the National Constitution recognises and advocates both the SSE as a developmental path to tackle poverty and the 'Buen Vivir' paradigm.

Co-operatives in developing countries are well known for their inclusive nature, resilient structure and ability to improve peoples' livelihoods. Unlike mutual societies and community-based organizations, co-operatives have been present in Ecuador since the late 1930s and since 2008 have had a great deal of support from the government. However, there is little evidence-based research that attests to any significant change experienced by co-operatives with regards to their ability to innovate on inclusive terms, furthermore the relationships between the 'Buen Vivir', the SSE and the Ecuadorian co-operative movement have been widely underexplored. This paper seeks to fill these gaps by critically analysing the extent to which the Ecuadorian co-operative movement has changed since 2007 and if so what it has meant for co-operatives and their ability to innovate in inclusive terms.

The analysis of the Ecuadorian co-operative movement offers the possibility to understand the salient implications of adopting the 'Buen Vivir' and its impact on social innovation. The paper draws on qualitative and quantitative data, the former has been collected between June 2015 to March 2016 and consist of focus groups and in-depth interviews with representative of co-operatives, whereas the latter is historical and statistical in nature.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the processes of the production of space in the Ecuadorian context under the politics of development established with the introduction of the concept of ‘Buen Vivir’ in the constitution of 2008 and reflects upon the material condition of this post-neoliberal discourse.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last decade, Latin American countries have made an important shift in the development thinking. Several alternatives have been implemented, originating from a platform to imagine new forms of development that overcome the limited vision of the neoliberal model applied in the region. In the case of Ecuador, the introduction of the 'Buen Vivir' in the constitution of 2008 opened a new debate around the policies and practices that embodied this concept. This paper aims to critically analyse how the public policy implemented to support the 'Buen Vivir' discourse has influenced the process of production of space in the Ecuadorian reality. By analysing the construction of the 'Millennium Schools', educational spaces built by the government in different areas of Ecuador under the policies of 'Buen Vivir', it proposes an exploration of the characteristics that determine the spaces of 'Buen Vivir', the actors involved in their construction and the political reflections that arise around the process of construction itself. This analysis aims to connect the debate around 'Buen Vivir' as a post-neoliberal alternative and the conception of architectural practice as a social manifestation that involves architects and non-architects in thinking, writing and building spaces for the good life.